Menu

A 28-year-old Chicago man has been charged for his role in an attack on a group of white supremacists dining at a Tinley Park restaurant in May 2012, officials said.

Jason Richard Hammond of the 3300 block of South Morgan Street was charged with armed violence, aggravated battery and mob action on Thursday, Tinley Park Police Chief Steve Neubauer said. He is the sixth defendant to be charged in connection with the melee.

On May 19, 2012, a group of 18 masked men charged into the Ashford House in the 7900 block of West 159th Street to confront a group of white supremacists who were said to be at the eatery.

The masked men, all from the Bloomington, Ind., area, are members of the Hoosier Anti-Racist Movement. Hammond belonged to same group, Neubauer said.

Security video shows the men in masks carrying batons and other clublike objects. Within minutes, a melee broke out between the two groups, and several bystanders were injured.

Brothers Dylan, Cody and Jason Sutherlin and two other men, Alex Stuck and John S. Tucker, were arrested by an off-duty police officer shortly after the attack and have since each pleaded guilty to three felony counts of armed violence in connection with the attack. Their sentences range from 3 1/2 to 6 years in prison.

The case is a high priority for the police department, Neubauer said. The attack occurred on a Sunday afternoon and disrupted a graduation party and a bridal shower, he said.

“These people came in masked with weapons and created mayhem in the place,” Chief Steve Neubauer said. “It was surreal.”

“You just can’t have those kinds of things going on, so we have worked on this thing relentlessly,” Neubauer said. He declined to discuss how the police department tracked down Hammond, noting that there are still 12 suspects who have yet to be arrested.

Nick Cardinal, the manager at Ashford House who was also on the scene at the time of the attack, said he was pleased by the latest arrest.